At Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin explains his long silence over this holiday season having been due to an acute infection from E. coli. This led to an extended hospital stay from Christmas morning to just about New Year’s Eve, but antibiotics and other treatment have helped beat the illness. He is still recovering, and remains somewhat tired, but he confirms that he will follow through on his commitment to appear at the media-only TCA event this Friday, and will carry out his signing at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena on Sunday (he does ask fans who attend to go easy on him, however, and only bring a book or two for him to sign).

He also indicates that one of the announcements he hoped to make won’t be happening due to this, but he hopes to be fully recovered by the end of the month, and back to work before that. This does suggest he had hoped to spend the holidays finishing up A Dance with Dragons, but it appears he’ll need to get his health back on track.